The Need for Hospitality -  According to Pope Francis 

The World Meeting of the Families (WMOF) renewed my energy, enthusiasm and love for the Church. But it also exposed a weakness that many Catholics share with the rest of humanity. This being the lack of hospitality toward those who remain disenfranchised, marginalized, or poor. Why do I say this? 

All week Pope Francis talked about the importance of loving others, being charitable toward people we work with or have disagreements with, etc. He talked a lot about religious freedom and the importance of opening doors for immigrants seeking a better place to live. And he even proved that he walks the talk as he served in the soup kitchen in DC. He proved it again as he caressed the disabled person in the wheel chair. He emulated it as he endured hour after hour of what seemed like gobbly-gook/political speak from those in power. He said it well as he thanked those people who remain out of sight of such a great event - from the janitors to the cooks and dishwashers. 

Even though we agree with the words, do we really listen? Do we really put his words into practice?

To many people, Pope Francis is a pope of the downtrodden, the hopeless, the helpless. Some presume his theology of love is much different from that expressed in the Catholic Catechism. But that presumption is off the mark. Pope Francis is opening up the Catechism for us; he is interpreting it for us as we fail to grasp its finer points. He is showing us how to put it to work in everyday lives. For example, did you know that even the Catholic Catechism mentions the importance of hospitality? It states:“To the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount it is fitting to add the moral catechesis of the apostolic teachings. This doctrine hands on the Lord’s teaching with the authority of the apostles particularly in the presentation of the virtues that flow from faith in Christ and are animated by charity, the principal gift of the Spirit. Let charity be genuine… Love one another with brotherly affection Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints, practice hospitality.” [CCC 1971] This Catechism passage references Romans 12:9-13 which teaches us to love, abhor evil, hold onto good, give honor, and show hospitality. 

What is hospitality? It must be pretty important as it is mentioned in both the Bible and the Catechism! Hospitality is traditionally defined as the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers. But it has to be more than that to be talked about in the Bible. Hospitality is measured by the degree of kindness we show others, including strangers. It is our treatment of them. It is the welcome we give to someone’s presence and/or approach - even if it makes us uncomfortable. It is our willingness to listen to others’ stories about their life, hardships and issues. It is our willingness to refrain from dismissing them for any reason even when their clothes or attitudes hint at addictions or problems. Hospitality was modeled for us by the Good Samaritan who went out of his way to help the wounded man even though it was socially inappropriate to do so. 

Let me conclude with a real story from the WMOF that drives home how Catholics lack hospitality - consciously and unconsciously.

My husband, Dave, walked into the men’s room at the WMOF conference which was in the usual state of mess and disarray. {Women’s bathrooms were equally messy. Why can’t Catholics pick up or clean up after themselves?] Dave encountered the janitor who was grumbling about the mess as he ‘cleaned’ it for probably the 10th time that day. As he grumbled, he murmured to those within hearing: ‘All these god-people and nobody looks me in the eye or talks to me.’ Obviously, he was unhappy with his state in life - but it is also obvious that few ’god-people’ tried to help him better appreciate his job or his state in life or be present to him as they dirtied up his domain without concern about him or the next person using the bathroom. Apparently, the janitor interpreted the general lack of hospitality as a sign that god-people put their faith in one bucket and their social behaviors and attitudes in another. It is the compartmentalization of faith and hospitality toward anyone rather than the integration of faith with hospitality towards all that is the problem. In my opinion, this is Pope Francis’ keynote message. 

It certainly is a tall order to be present to everyone around us! Yet, it remains God’s hearkening! We are each called to holiness as we strive to integrate our faith with hospitality toward all regardless of the fact that we are all BUSY! [Being Under Satan’s Yoke?] Or that we live in a fast paced, technologically driven, independent, and ‘indifferent towards strangers’ advanced society. 

Catholics Cheer Pope's Remarks

Words matter. How we interpret words matter. Twisting words to massage our consciences matters.  

What did the Pope really mean during the three interviews by Antonio Spadaro, S.J. Editor in chief of La Civilta Cattolica (August 2013; Rome)? It seemed to fire the shot that was heard round the world. The interview was captured and then translated for the English world by a team of five translators. It was also translated into the various languages of the world for both believers and non. Interestingly, it continues to be in the news even a week later - that is impressive considering the news cycle seems to last one day at most - maybe a week if its huge. To read the 12000 word interview,  visit http://www.americamagazine.org/print/156341.See for yourself what you think the Pope was trying to say. This is my interpretation of his message.

 Francis' sentence (lifted from the translated document):  "The church sometimes has locked itself up in small things, in small-minded rules" does not in any way match up with the following statement from the press: "The church has become too focused on small minded rules on hot button issues like homosexuality, abortion and contraceptives?"

First, note that Pope Francis does not define when, where, and how the church has locked itself up in small things! Yet the press took that statement and defined it for the rest of us by running all of his next thoughts together as if this is the context of what he was thinking. In fact, NARAL thanked the Pope for including Abortion in this small mindedness. So what does Pope Francis do and say next? He meets with Catholic physicians the very next day and says the following: "Your being Catholic entails greater responsibility: first of all to yourself, in the effort to be consistent with the Christian vocation, and then to contemporary culture, to help recognize the transcendent dimension in human life, the imprint of the creative work of God, from the very first moment of conception. This is a commitment to the new evangelization that often requires going against the tide, paying a personal price. The Lord counts on you to spread the 'Gospel of life.'"!

Pope Francis strongly condemned abortion as a manifestation of a “throwaway culture.”

"Every unborn child, though unjustly condemned to be aborted, has the face of the Lord, who even before his birth, and then as soon as he was born, experienced the rejection of the world," the pope said. 

Do these words sound like a sentiment that NARAL can support?

The same can be said for the Pope's comments about contraception and homosexuality. As he says: he is a son of the Church. This means he has been formed by the Church and faith, hope and charity. He loves the Church but is its newest visionary, He sees how it can do more. He sees the need to bring the truth to people in a new way, a new language, and personally with love!  

I think he is saying this... Faith doesn't seem real to the little people when priests, clergy, Archbishops and Cardinals are buried by administrative details and fail to connect with the people on a daily basis - the little people not the big shots of the world. Religion doesn't seem to make a difference when so much of the donated money goes to bureaucracy rather than direct aid to the people of hurricanes, and other disaster relief. It doesn't seem to make a difference when we fail to provide ongoing help for women in troubled relationships and/or pregnancies - personally and time and  time again. It has little impact when the religion does little to nothing to support parents with special needs pregnancies. It seems to have little impact when young people attend Catholic academies for their  academics and sports and not matters of faith and charitable works of mercy and vocation development. It seems to have less impact when special needs children are left out of the Catholic education system. The pre-marriage formation programs last only weeks and we wonder why divorce is so common among believers. Church going parents seem to just be going through the motions when attending Mass and doing little to  nothing to swim against the tide of materialism and secularism. It does little good to hear the admonishments that we need to hear but think it points to someone else. It does little good to take the Pope's words and twist them so they fit my lifestyle. It does little good to talk against contraception without being able to explain why cogently and consistenly. It does little good to talk against homosexuality without conducting Catholic studies that really look at what it is and why is comes about. It does little good when we  'behold a God dead on the cross for our sake and not love him." It does little good when we behold a God dead on the cross for our sake and not be appreciative of his sacrifice and proving it by changing the way we live!

Is the Pope bringing the Church to a new place? I think so but not the place talked about in the secular press or by many of us. The real Pope is a revolutionary for Christ. He means it when he says " I ask you to be revolutionaries, to swim against the tide; yes, I am asking you to rebel against this culture that sees everything as temporary and that ultimately believes that you are incapable of responsibility;  that you are incapable of true love."

Does this sound to you like he is trivializing abortion, contraception and homosexuality? It sounds to me as if he is really calling us to an even higher plain - to the Beatitudes. This is a tall order and only with God's grace can we love authentically. That means being close to Christ and he never suggested that we ought to just go along to get along!

Religion, Politics and Money

For at least five generations, it has been taboo to talk about religion, politics and money with just anyone. Sure, it was okay to talk about these things in the privacy of the home but never on street corners, public events, and general dinner parties. That was then - what about now? Is it any different?

Social media has connected people to people in amazing ways. But do these connections really allow for a discussion about things that matter - like faith, religion, politics and money? Does the new social medias help connect people to people by changing hearts, and minds? Does it allow a more civil discourse? Does it move the goal post to caring for others as we should? Do we take time to really think about what someone has posted? Even if it offends us? Do we try and understand where they are coming from? Or do we delete them as a friend instead? Block their postings? Block them out of sight and mind?

Several weeks ago, I posted a fact. The fact came from the US Bureau of Labor and Statistics. It was that upwards of 85% of new jobs created in 2013 were part time ones. The type of jobs that don't help families with children  to get ahead. The type of jobs whereby employers do not have to provide health care benefits. The type of jobs that really do not create economic recovery. An innocuous posting - or so I thought. Apparently, the posting violated the social rule to stick to postings about my children, their successes and mine; and how to grow green grass, etc.I say that with certainty because  within a few days the comment received from a friend blistered my sensibilities. His comments were personal attacks against me, my beliefs, and my character. I re-posted the facts, this time with a graph and suggested the person get his facts straight - thinking the graph would help. What followed was a full scale attack  using language that was verbally abusive, confrontational, foul, and hurtful.  and almost threatening.

I had to consider why! Just because I had posted a factual statement about money and the economy? Or because I had posted something that referred to one of the three taboo topics: money,  politics and even religion. It is also possible, the friend didn't like my personal recommendation to  get the facts straight...

Either way, it makes me wonder if any of us really stop and consider what someone is trying to say! Really? Do any of us  think about  online postings?  Do most of us even bother to comment on each others postings? Are we simply marching down the path of  the Culture of Indifference in what seems to be a more sophisticated way - as suggested by Pope Francis. The place where we refuse to discuss things that really matter? After all, now all we have to do is block comments and people and postings that we don't like.  Even though we may have thousands of friends, do they really know what we believe? Or are we even more silent than the silent majority of the 60's and 70's?

On another note - but related - I highly recommend the book " Left to Tell"  by Immaculee. Her story is amazing... and it prompted  this blog. The people of Rawanda seemed to get along even though tell tale signs of turbulence ran just beneath the surface... In a very short time, a full scale war erupted pitting Catholics against Catholics, neighbor against neighbor, father against sons. One million people were massacred within a short period of time just because people  failed to understand each other when it came to the things that really mattered: faith, money, and politics.

Pope Francis recently told his priests just do something to counteract the fact that 85% of young Catholics leave the faith when they reach adulthood. Even if the priests make mistakes, at least do something! That pertains to us as well - let's just do something! This begins with talking about things that really matter!

What do you think? Hmmmm. how many of my friends will even bother to read this whole article (yes, I admit - this piece probably does not have much literary value but its important to me) and then post what they think? Go ahead, say what you really think. It feels good.... even if it may not be safe and secure.